The Hundred’s success has highlighted its potential to disrupt other cricket formats
The ECB’s chief executive expects the 100-ball format to be adopted outside the UK in the future
So, The Hundred, seemingly a very English and Welsh affair, is over, at least in playing terms.
Its ramifications could be far-reaching and, if a rather cheeky tweet posted after Finals Day is anything to go by, its hubristic culture knows few boundaries. Two disconsolate players of a defeated team were shown sitting in a dugout under the caption: “When The Hundred is over and you don’t know what to do with yourself for the next year.”
Critics were quick to seize on the tweet, swiftly removed, as an example of The Hundred’s aggressive promotion to the detriment of other forms of cricket taking place not only in the UK, but in other parts of the world.
The third Test between England and India started on Aug. 24, four days after The Hundred ended; the quarterfinals of the men’s domestic T20 Blast are being played between Aug. 24 and 27; and the women’s domestic T20 competition starts on the 28th. Elsewhere, there is international competition in the Caribbean, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe and the USA.
As highlighted in previous columns, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s driving logic for The Hundred is to introduce cricket to a new, younger and diverse audience. If, as appears likely from early statistics, this has succeeded, it would seem logical to drive the new audience towards other forms of the game. There are indications that those in charge of The Hundred recognize the accusations of being proprietorial toward their audience, in that the T20 Blast is now being signposted via media partners.
Long before the pandemic struck, cricket’s finances were in a parlous state, with the notable exception of India. The ECB, after achieving revenues of £228 million in 2019/20, revealed a fall to £207 million — a loss of £16.1 million — in 2020/21, compared with a profit of £6.5 million in the previous year. This had a negative effect on its cash reserves, which have fallen from £73 million in 2016 to £2.2 million.
The loss of revenue to the 18 professional county cricket clubs caused by the cessation of the game in 2020 has exerted even greater pressure on the game’s finances.
It is against this background that the ECB bet the house on The Hundred. Early indicators point to success. Almost 25,000 people are estimated to have attended the men’s final.
The tournament’s opening night was attended by the highest crowd in the world for a domestic women’s match, a figure that was broken by the attendance of 17,116 for the women’s final. It is estimated that the 1.9 million peak TV audience who watched the opening night broke the record for a women’s cricket match, 35 percent being women.
The return of cricket to free-toair television on BBC 2 fueled these numbers in large measure — 1.6 million — with most of the balance on Sky Sports.
The ECB claims that 510,000 tickets were “sold or issued,” half of the ticket-holders attended the double-headed men’s and women’s matches, 60 percent being under 45, around 20 percent being women and 19 percent children, while 21 percent of tickets sold were bought by women. Sky reports that viewing figures for individual matches varied between 200,000 and 350,000. The ECB also forecast a £10 million profit on revenues of around £50 million. However, this is subject to doubt as it does not include payments to counties.
These indicators are already informing The Hundred’s shape for 2022. Given its appeal to younger people and women, it will surely occupy August weeks in the school holidays, after the Commonwealth Games end on August 8. This runs the risk of pushing other formats into the background, as has happened this year.
The 50-over One-Day Cup, competed for by the 18 counties, has been played by teams weakened by the loss of players to The Hundred, with less than a week between the quarterfinals and the final. The four-day County Championship competition had been played largely at the beginning of the season and the end, with the last matches scheduled throughout September. The finals of the T20 Blast will take place on September 18, three weeks after the quarterfinals.
This patchwork of fixtures, designed to accommodate The Hundred, has led to the accusation that these competitions have been downgraded and that the effect is detrimental to domestic cricket and the performance of the national team.
It can be argued that 2021 is an unusual season because of the effects of the pandemic and the need to adjust to them. It can be further argued that opportunities have been provided for young and unknown players to make their mark, that the women’s game has been given a major boost and that cricket has reappeared on terrestrial television.
Yet, the question remains as to how The Hundred fits into the English cricket calendar — how it can complement the other formats rather than weaken them.
This may appear to be a local matter. However, the ECB’s chief executive is on record as saying he expects the 100-ball format to be adopted outside of the UK in the future. Whatever form that takes, its potential to disrupt is clear.
This is causing some to be doubtful of the ECB’s stated motives of using The Hundred to help fund county cricket. They regard it as an attempt to seize power over the game and there are rumors of counteraction by the counties, who are dependent upon the ECB for funds but are losing control over the domestic agenda.
At Lords, fireworks lit up the sky on Finals Day for The Hundred. It seems that fireworks of a different nature will be heard at the same venue before the 2022 season commences unless the ECB’s intentions become more transparent and trusted.